Women 2nd at Challenge

Jameena Hunt tripled in the throws and Ciara Short doubled in the sprints Friday to lead Cal State Fullerton's women's team to a second-place finish in the 18th Annual Big West Challenge at UC Irvine.

The Titans totaled 168 points to trail only UC Santa Barbara with 236. Long Beach State was third at 120.5 and host UCI had 117.50.

The men got a double from Bryan Luther in the sprints but placed fourth with 114 points. Long Beach was first with 213 followed by UCSB at 188 and UCI at 142.

Hunt won the shot put at 46 feet, 2 3/4 inches, the discus at 168-6 and the hammer at 174-8. Short won the 200 in 23.98 and the 400 in 53.45 and was part of two winning relay teams. Other Titan female winners were Lauren Williams in the 100 hurdles and Bonnie Sorensen in the long jump. The Titans swept the relay races with the 4x100 team of Short, Williams, Chazz Evans and Krizia Apelar setting a meet record with a time of 45.85.

Sorensen's 19-foot, 1 1/2-inch long jump was her seasonal best and her high jump (5-7, fourth place) was a career high. Ginny English beat her career best by 6 iniches to take second in the pole vault at 11 feet, 7 3/4 inches. Carolyn Ellis had a career best in the 1500 (4:34.94 for fourth place) and took third in the 3000.

For the men, Luther won the 100 in 10.65 (third best time in the Big West this season) and the 200 in 21.39 (second best in the Big West). Lamar Oliphant won the high jump at 6-8 3/4 and the Titans finished 1, 2 and 4 in the pole vault led by Andrew Sullivan at 15-7.

"It was a real good meet for both the women and men," said Head Coach John Elders. "The men competed real well, considering LaRon Brown and Julius Joseph were held out. A lot of positive things happened and there was a lot of improvement."

Up next week are the Mt. Sac Relays, the Twilight Open in Los Angeles, the Azusa Invitational and the decathlon/heptathlon at Azusa.